Abies nordmanniana - Caucasian fir description

Scientific name: Abies nordmanniana   (Steven) Spach  1841

Synonyms: Abies leioclada Steven ex Gordon,   Abies nordmanniana subsp. nordmanniana, Abies nordmanniana var. leioclada (Steven) Czeczott, Abies nordmanniana var. tortifolia (Rehder) L.H.Bailey, Abies pectinata var. leioclada (Steven) Link ex Carrière, Abies picea var. leioclada (Steven) Lindl. & Gordon, Picea nordmanniana (Steven) Loudon, Pinus abies var. leioclada (Steven) Endl., Pinus abies var. nordmanniana (Steven) F.Muell.,  Pinus leioclada Steven, Pinus nordmanniana Steven,   Pinus picea var. leioclada(Steven) Ledeb.

Infraspecific taxa: Abies nordmanniana subsp. equi-trojani (Asch. & Sint. ex Boiss.) Coode & Cullen  1965

Common names: Caucasian fir, Nordmann fir

Description

Tree to 50(-70) m tall, with trunk to 1.5(-2) m in diameter. Bark gray, becoming shallowly furrowed with age. Branchlets with scattered to dense reddish or blackish hairs or none, grooved between the leaf bases. Buds 3.5-5(-6) mm long, not resinous or slightly (to heavily) resinous. Needles arranged to the sides and angled forward above and covering the twigs on lower branches curved upward on coning branches, (1.5-)2-3(-4) cm long, bright dark green above, the tips prominently notched or rounded. Individual needles flat in cross section and with a resin canal on either side near the edge just inside the lower epidermis or deeper, without stomates or with a few discontinuous lines of stomates near the tip above and with eight or nine lines in each white stomatal band beneath. Pollen cones 8-12(-20) mm long, reddish purple or yellow. Seed cones cylindrical, (10.5-)12-16.5(-20) cm long, 4-6 cm across, green when young maturing reddish brown. Bract blades about as long as the seed scales (longer with the tips), extending between them and bending down over them and then up at the tip. Persistent cone axis narrowly conical. Seed body (8-)10-12 mm long, the wing about as long to 1.5 times as long. Cotyledons six or seven.

It is named for Alexander Nordmann (1803-1866), a Finnish botanist who collected the type specimen in 1836 near the headwaters of the Kura River in Georgia and introduced it into general cultivation.

Mountains surrounding the Black Sea on the northeast, east, and south, from southernmost Russia through Georgia and Armenia to Turkey west to Ulu Dağ (Mount Olympus). Forming pure stands or mixed with Caucasian spruce (Picea orientalis) and other trees; (900-)1,300-1,900(-2,200) m.

Conservation Status

Red List Category & Criteria: Least Concern

Varieties:

Abies nordmanniana ’Aargau’ 
Abies nordmanniana ’Albospicata’
Abies nordmanniana ’Ambrolauri’
Abies nordmanniana ’Arne’s Dwarf’
Abies nordmanniana ’Aurea’
Abies nordmanniana ’Aureospica’
Abies nordmanniana ’Aureovariegata’
Abies nordmanniana ’Barabits Compact’
Abies nordmanniana ’Barney’
Abies nordmanniana ’Berlin’
Abies nordmanniana ’Bethlehem’
Abies nordmanniana ’Brandt’
Abies nordmanniana ’Brevifolia’
Abies nordmanniana ’Bright Light’
Abies nordmanniana ’Broom H’
Abies nordmanniana ’Coerulescens’
Abies nordmanniana ’Compacta’
Abies nordmanniana ’Cosfeld’
Abies nordmanniana ’Creamy’ 
Abies nordmanniana ’Dobřichovice’
Abies nordmanniana ’Durham Dwarf’ 
Abies nordmanniana ’Eifel’ 
Abies nordmanniana ’Emerald Pearl’
Abies nordmanniana ’Erecta’
Abies nordmanniana ’Filip’s Goldheart’ 
Abies nordmanniana ’Filip’s Perfect Column’ 
Abies nordmanniana ’Filip's Secret Mystery’
Abies nordmanniana ’Filip’s Twisted’
Abies nordmanniana ’Franke’
Abies nordmanniana ’Frankenhof’  
Abies nordmanniana ’Fritsche’ 
Abies nordmanniana ’Glauca’
Abies nordmanniana ’Gold Spear’
Abies nordmanniana ’Golden Spreader’
Abies nordmanniana ’Goldschein’
Abies nordmanniana ’H. Broom’
Abies nordmanniana ’Hájek’
Abies nordmanniana ’Hexenbesen Jacobsen’
Abies nordmanniana ’Hopper Select’
Abies nordmanniana ’Horizontalis’
Abies nordmanniana ’Hupp’s Perfect Pillar’
Abies nordmanniana ’Jadwiga’
Abies nordmanniana ’Jakobsen’
Abies nordmanniana ’Jensen’
Abies nordmanniana ’Kamenná Lhota’
Abies nordmanniana ’Kendra’
Abies nordmanniana ’Kilian’
Abies nordmanniana ’Kolumnowa’
Abies nordmanniana ’Lennartz’
Abies nordmanniana ’Lime Lights’
Abies nordmanniana ’Midwinter Gold’
Abies nordmanniana ’Mlýňany’
Abies nordmanniana ’Münsterland’
Abies nordmanniana ’Nana Compacta’
Abies nordmanniana ’Peli’
Abies nordmanniana ’Pendula’
Abies nordmanniana ’Petra’
Abies nordmanniana ’Pevé Hasselt’
Abies nordmanniana ’Pospisil’
Abies nordmanniana ’Procumbens’
Abies nordmanniana ’Prostrata’
Abies nordmanniana ’Rako’
Abies nordmanniana ’Refracta’
Abies nordmanniana ’Robusta’
Abies nordmanniana ’Rustica’
Abies nordmanniana ’Särling’
Abies nordmanniana ’Schwarzgrün’
Abies nordmanniana ’Select’
Abies nordmanniana ’Sell’   
Abies nordmanniana ’Sláma’
Abies nordmanniana ’Starkers Dwarf’
Abies nordmanniana ’Stiff Needle’
Abies nordmanniana ’Sunychl’
Abies nordmanniana ’Tortifolia’
Abies nordmanniana ’Trautmann’
Abies nordmanniana ’Variegata’
Abies nordmanniana ’Verkade’s Prostrate’
Abies nordmanniana ’Wintergold’
Abies nordmanniana ’Witch’s Broom’

Attribution from: Conifers Garden